Saul Bellow Quotes
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I am a true adorer of life, and if I can't reach as high as the face of it, I plant my kiss somewhere lower down. Those who understand will require no further explanation.
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Readiness to answer all questions is the infallible sign of stupidity.
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A man is only as good as what he loves.
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Everybody needs his memories. They keep the wolf of insignificance from the door.
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"What do women want?" "They eat green salad and drink human blood."
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A writer is a reader moved to emulation.
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Boredom is an instrument of social control. Power is the power to impose boredom, to command stasis, to combine this stasis with anguish. The real tedium, deep tedium, is seasoned with terror and with death.
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Conquered people tend to be witty.
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... unless you made your life a turning point, there was no reason for existing.
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There is only one way to defeat the enemy, and that is to write as well as one can. The best argument is an undeniably good book.
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When the striving ceases, there is life waiting as a gift.
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Love is the most potent cosmetic.
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Humankind struggles with collective powers for its freedom, the individual struggles with dehumanization for the possession of his soul.
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Art -- the fresh feeling, new harmony, the transforming magic which by means of myth brings back the scattered distracted soul from its modern chaos -- art, not politics, is the remedy.
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A person either creates or destroys. There is no neutrality.
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O Lord! he concluded, forgive all these trespasses. Lead me not into Penn Station.
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One thought-murder a day keeps the psychiatrist away.
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You can spend the entire second half of your life recovering from the mistakes of the first half.
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To tell the truth I never had it so good. But I lacked the strength of character to bear such joy.
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She was what we used to call a suicide blonde - dyed by her own hand.
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An exchange occurs between man and woman. Love and thought complete each other in the human pair, and something like an exchange of souls takes place, according to the divine plan.
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I want to tell you, don't marry suffering. Some people do. They get married to it, and sleep and eat together, just as husband and wife. If they go with joy they think it's adultery.
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The flesh would shrink and go, the blood would dry, but no one believes in his mind of minds or heart of hearts that the pictures do stop.
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Retirement is an illusion. Not a reward but a mantrap. The bankrupt underside of success. A shortcut to death. Golf courses are too much like cemeteries.